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Ice Sculpting

ft. Thomas Brown

Thomas Brown, Ice Sculptor

Photos: Matthew Johnson

Words: Tiffany Chan

Sculptor: Thomas Brown from Okamoto Studio

I once read that everything around you is made out of the earth. Isn’t that something? So obvious, really, and yet something else to think about altogether. Everything – from the metallic heft of the dazzling phones in our hands to the titanic, towering, steely things that are skyscrapers themselves – all made from the stuff of the earth’s crust.

How does it happen? Trees becoming coffee table books, sand becoming glass. And us: dreaming up these things, somehow lucky to be the ones making the books and the glasses, working with everything unearthed.

As for ourselves: sometimes it looks like we stay the same, mostly. Our clothes change and our skin wrinkles. But on some days you feel yourself taking shape a bit more, on the inside: a little braver, or a lot bolder. From what? Everything that life brings.

So here’s to making things out of the elemental, as best we can. Things that speak to the years it took to grow, or the hours it took to freeze a pure slab of ice. Make it good, make it well. As for today’s contribution, I offer my few words as writer; from Matt the photographer, a few good images for the eye; and from Thomas the ice sculptor, a wordless demonstration of what it means to go at it all with determination, and grace.